science
Newswise — Scientists have indirect evidence that: antimatter It falls like matter. This means that a normal ball that falls to Earth will fall, and a ball made of antimatter will fall as well. But until now, they had never performed a direct experiment to establish this prediction. Such experiments essentially involve scientists dropping antimatter atoms and comparing their acceleration to that of ordinary matter atoms. A new experiment at CERN has shown that antihydrogen atoms fall with the same acceleration as hydrogen atoms. Since antihydrogen falls to the bottom, this means that all the antimatter can fall to the bottom.
impact
This experiment addressed a fundamental question: Does antimatter fall up or down? Researchers discovered that it falls downward. The results demonstrate the importance of combining ideas and methods from plasma, particle, and nuclear physics. This marks the beginning of a new era in the study of how gravity affects neutral antimatter. This groundbreaking result is also a stepping stone for future experiments. Using the same equipment, the researchers plan to improve the measurements to 1% accuracy. A follow-up experiment called “atomic fountain” could achieve even higher precision.
summary
Einstein’s general theory theory of relativityCreated in 1915, this theory constitutes science’s best explanation of gravity. It predicted new physics such as the bending of light in gravitational fields, which was verified in the 1919 solar eclipse observations, and gravitational waves, which were only recently detected. However, there are many unknowns about the composition of the universe, including questions about the dominance of matter. antimatterthe properties of dark energy and dark matterand the combination of gravity and quantum mechanics.
Most scientists believe that antimatter should be attracted to Earth like normal matter, but some have suggested that antimatter may be repelled. This proposal contradicts the theory of general relativity, which predicts that everything should respond to gravity in the same way, regardless of what it is made of. In this study, the scientists used his ALPHA-g device to synthesize, trap, and release antihydrogen atoms from a magnetic balance, conceptually similar to a classic bread balance. They discovered that antihydrogen atoms are attracted to Earth. This means that the idea of antigravity is incorrect, at least when it comes to antihydrogen. This study is a proof of concept for high-precision measurements of antihydrogen in Earth’s gravitational field.
funding
This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Fusion Energy Science Program, and the National Science Foundation. National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Rio de Janeiro’s Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado Foundation, and Brazil’s National Energy Agency. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and TRIUMF. Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark. UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Royal Society and Leverhulme Trust. Israel Science Foundation. and the Swedish Research Council.
